groceries

Apparently I’m on a domesticity kick. Other, deeper posts are in the works, I promise 🙂 But my latest news to report is that I think I have become a multiple-grocery-store shopper. When I lived in Chicagoland, several of my good friends there shopped at 2 or more (at one point, I think one friend had 5) grocery stores regularly for various reasons (generally related to seeking quality produce and low prices). I’d always said that while I was employed full time, I was going to limit my shopping to one store, and I’d consider expanding that once I was at home with kiddos. Of course, I think I envisioned my life at that point being filled with hour upon hour of free time, and the reality is just slightly different than that. Honestly, that is a good thing. As Matt was kind enough to remind me recently, life is full of choices. I could choose to have hours of free time and a consistently clean house – or I can choose to have relationships, real relationships open to the possibility of knowing one another’s hearts. We obviously consistently choose the latter (and the state of my house, as well as the amount of free time I have, do reflect that!).

But I digress. Back to groceries. As I said, I think I am making the transition to shopping regularly at multiple grocery stores. Today Miranda and I ventured out to check out Columbia’s Aldi store (a la The Frugal Girl), and it does seem that I’ll be able to save a significant amount of money doing some of my grocery shopping there. I shopped for nearly two weeks’ worth of meals this afternoon, and I was able to spend under $125 total. To be fair, that includes no meals for our community group, and my dad is coming into town for several days during that period of time, so we’ll definitely be eating out for more meals than usual, and I’m planning for us to eat a good amount of food I already had on hand, but still, $125 is just above a pretty standard weekly grocery shopping bill for me, so this could have a measurable impact on our budget.

We got moving quickly today after Miranda’s nap, so we were able to make it to both Aldi and HyVee in the same outing, which prevents this expansion in my grocery store patronage from eating into Miranda’s and my time too significantly (and also ensures that we’re not eating up our grocery savings with a growth in our gas expenditures).

Though this is still somewhat intimidating to me (most change is), I think overall I’m excited about this new development. Matt and I are really trying to make wise financial decisions. We’re re-evaluating some of our spending right now in particular, partly because we had some major expenses at the beginning of the year from which our budget is still recovering. In general, though, if I’m able to make any cuts in spending, we can definitely use those funds to pay off debt or save for future purchases or other fun things 🙂 I’m looking forward to that!

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Meet Alison

I'm Alison, wife to one great guy and mama to four precious kiddos. My days are spent loving and caring for those 5 and anyone else God brings into my path, and as I read books and explain math, wipe noses and change diapers, teach and pray, correct and celebrate, I also contemplate and share my thoughts in this space. I'm so honored that you're here!

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